Chills
by kakashifan9
Summary: Shouta wakes up from an unsettling nightmare of the USJ attack. Hizashi keeps him grounded.


Shouta's eyes shot open, itchy and undoubtedly red as he took a few shaky breaths to steady himself. His elbows ached and his chest felt heavy almost as if something had been sitting on top of him.

Something large, black… croaking into his ear as it bent his arm backwards into an unsightly mess.

Gritting his teeth, he silently cursed himself. It had been that nightmare again, the one where the ugly Noumu had broken his goggles, his limbs, and in this recurrent variation, it had even gouged out an eye. His silent screams were masked by the overwhelming stares of his students, gaping at his helplessness. As his blankets slid off his sweaty chest, Shouta grasped both his elbows, tracing the scars on each end and willing the aching pain to subside.

It was just a dream, he told himself, sweat rolling down his forehead. Yet he hadn't had this dream in months. It was like a reenactment of that day, fully equipped with the feeling of suffocating anxiety and fear of losing his newly assigned homeroom. He willed his hands to stop trembling, pulling his blankets to bury his face in the soft fabric, anything to help calm this illogical fear of his.

As he took another shaky breath, he knew the shadows in the corner of his small dorm room were harmless. Shigaraki wasn't standing by his door. The hideous Noumu wasn't towering behind his back. He knew all perimeters of the campus were under strict lockdown, but he still couldn't help but glance at each surrounding wall for some form of reassurance that villains really weren't lurking by his bedside.

"This is stupid," he muttered to himself, grimacing at his childish thoughts.

He pulled his knees to his chest, resting his head against his arms as he listened to the wind rattle against his closed window. The ringing in his ears refused to subside.

Shouta's eyes trailed to his phone that was lying on his nightstand. He hesitantly picked it up, swiping it open.

He stared at his text messages. There were five new messages, all of them from Hizashi before he had fallen asleep. It was nothing particularly important, mainly just his best friend sending him blocks of texts loaded with emojis and all caps messages detailing the events of his day.

Somehow reading the texts helped Shouta slow his breathing, his mouth forming a thin line akin to a smile as he read about how Hizashi had recently beat his own high score in Candy Crush.

Shouta stared at his phone, rereading the messages a few times before hesitantly tapping on the message box to reply to Hizashi's texts.

"_Hey, are you awake?"_

Almost immediately after typing out the message, he erased it. He stared at his phone for another tense minute, the light of his screen illuminating his dark room, enlarging the shadows that seemed to dance around the corner of his eye.

"_Good job on the new high score."_

He stared at the message, unblinking and tense before hitting the send button. Shouta rubbed his tired eyes as he reread his simple text. A part of him was hoping to get a reply from Hizashi, a small comfort in his tiny, trapped room.

"Stupid," Shouta berated himself once more, narrowing his eyes as he closed his phone. He wasn't a child. It was just a dream, nothing more than a hollow, aching memory.

He placed his phone back onto his nightstand, throwing his blankets over his head as he burrowed himself into his pillow. The sudden vibration from his phone caused an involuntary jump. Shouta grimaced at his lack of self-control before pulling the bright screen towards his face.

"_It's 3am, Shouta. Why are you awake?"_

Shouta scoffed, his tense muscles relaxing as he wondered the same for the voice hero. Both of them knew each other's schedules by heart and neither of them had hero work tonight. There was a small flash of guilt building in his stomach, half wondering if he had woken up Hizashi. But it was quickly overpowered by comfort and maybe a touch of fondness knowing that he wasn't the only one awake right now.

Another text flashed on his phone.

"_Are you trying to beat my new high score in Candy Crush?"_

Shouta rolled his eyes. Sometimes it amazed him how Hizashi indulged in such silly app games, not to mention the amount of competitiveness that would exude off him.

This was usually the part where Shouta would return the text with some kind of snarky reply, but right now such a message eluded him. Maybe if his instincts would stop telling him to tear his room apart to look for any traces of a villain invasion, maybe then he'd be able to regain his composure.

"_Go to sleep, Hizashi."_

Shouta stared at his phone, waiting to see his friend type a reply. He saw the three dots appear and then fade away a few times before finally disappearing altogether. His phone felt heavy and his chest felt tight when there was no reply. The shadows in his room seemed to stretch as the minutes slowly ticked by.

Finally turning his screen off, Shouta rubbed his tired eyes, lying back onto his pillow. He held his phone in his hand, biting his lip as he didn't quite feel ready to return it back onto his nightstand yet.

It was all so irrational. There was no reason to feel like he was sleeping in a war zone. He shut his eyes and cradled his phone to his chest, trying to focus on the warmth of his bed while blocking out the nonexistent looming figures that appeared to be hovering around his small dorm room.

The scars on his elbows burned as the ringing in his ears intensified. The sweat rolling down his body felt like dried blood. Shouta's breathing grew shallow, faster, and sharper, clutching his phone as he told himself that no one was standing behind him right now. No one was screaming in agony, explosions weren't being set off around the campus.

Everything was fine. Everything _had_ to be okay. There was no reason for anything to go wrong.

Shouta bit back a gasp as he heard a few soft knocks on his door, adrenaline rushing through his veins for a brief moment. He sat up, his hair clinging to his face drenched in sweat. His hand gripped his phone a little more tightly, threatening to snap the flimsy black plastic case that Hizashi had gifted him not too long ago. He'd never hear the end of it if he did so he forced himself to relax his hold on his phone case.

"Hey, Shouta. Can I come in?" a familiar voice asked, following the question with a small yawn.

Shouta owlishly blinked in his dark room, wondering if he was imagining this unexpected visit. He carefully threw his covers aside, flicking on his desk light before shuffling over to his door.

Standing just outside his dorm in a white t-shirt and banana printed pajama pants, Hizashi stifled another yawn. Shouta momentarily stared at the pillow his friend was clutching to his chest before trailing down to the duck slippers he was wearing.

"Why are you here?" Shouta sighed, grimacing at how ungrateful he sounded in contrast to the relief he felt bubbling in his chest. He saw green eyes glancing at the phone he was currently clutching by his side. Shouta gracefully hid his hand behind his back, averting his gaze to the floor as if he was a child that had been caught stealing a cookie from the kitchen cabinet.

"I just wanted to make sure that you weren't trying to beat my new high score," Hizashi nonchalantly shrugged, his voice a little deeper and raspier than usual. "I spent money on extra lives to have the top score on the board. I'd like it to stay there for a little longer, you know?"

Shouta was left baffled and speechless, unsure of how to respond as Hizashi brushed passed his shoulder to sit on his bed.

"So I'm just going to keep an eye on you to make sure that doesn't happen, alright?" Hizashi continued, fluffing his pillow next to Shouta's before plopping down onto it, his blond hair pooling around the white sheets.

When Shouta made no motion of moving towards his bed, Hizashi peeked through his hair with half lidded eyes. He inched closer to the wall as if it made a significant difference in the remaining room on the bed.

"Please, 'm tired. Turn off the light and come to bed already," Hizashi whined, patting the small space left on the bed gently.

Shouta hesitantly locked his door, narrowing his eyes as he returned to his now shared bed, turning his desk lamp off as he made his way passed it. With his back pressed up against Hizashi's, he squeezed his way under his shared covers, elbowing his friend when he felt the voice hero jabbing his side as he tried adjusting to the small shared space.

"Don't hog all the blankets, okay?" Hizashi lightheartedly said, tugging them a little closer to his chest.

"Only if you make more room on the bed."

"You're bulkier than me, Shouta. You've seen my dainty waist size. I'm most definitely taking up less space between the two of us," Hizashi sang in triumph. Shouta huffed, shaking his head in exasperation. As if having a small waistline meant anything for hero work…

After finding a comfortable position in their cramp space, silence fell between them. Shouta wondered if it felt as heavy to Hizashi as it did to him. After a few minutes, Shouta began counting each light breath he heard from the body pressed up against his own. The small shifts in Hizashi's back as he breathed felt reassuring, his warmth radiating a sense of comfort, mildly alleviating the suffocating fear and apprehension he was drowning in not even ten minutes ago.

Hizashi's back fidgeted against him. Shouta felt a dip in the bed from the adjustment.

"Hey Shouta," Hizashi mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.

Shouta grunted in confirmation.

"The thing about the candy crush score, that was a lie," Hizashi said, as if that hadn't been obvious.

"Yeah?" Shouta sighed in response.

"Uh huh," Hizashi mumbled, his voice growing a little quieter. "You've always had a knack for reading the room for these kinds of things so I guess you probably know why I'm here."

Shouta tensed, pouting his lower lip as he shrunk into himself. This was not a conversation he was looking forward to hearing.

"The truth is," Hizashi started, yawning again midsentence. "I had a bad dream."

There was a beat of silence.

"You had a what now?" Shouta muttered, glancing over his shoulder with narrowed eyes.

"A bad dream," Hizashi continued. "There was this villain I was fighting. I think he had this really large blade for a weapon and he was swinging it around in the middle of this really crowded plaza. Seriously, Shouta, it was huge. It was probably three feet long, like the ones you see in anime."

Shouta was completely lost. He raised an eyebrow in question even though he knew his friend couldn't see it.

"He was waving it around and I couldn't use my quirk since there were so many people. So I ran in thinking I could maybe kick the blade out of his hand, do some hardcore parkour or something, you know?"

"How is this a bad dream?"

"I'm getting there, Shouta. Let me finish my story," Hizashi huffed, knocking his feet against Shouta's to silence his friend. "Where was I? Oh, right, he was using his executioner blade and I couldn't dodge it in time."

Shouta bit his lower lip, preparing himself to hear something rather unpleasant. The pool of blood he had accumulated during the USJ attack surfaced in his memory.

"He cut off my hair, Shouta. Gosh, it was awful," Hizashi sighed dramatically. "Lopped the gelled part clean off and I was standing in the middle of it all with this stump on my head. It was humiliating."

The wind continued to beat on the window, silence once again filling the room as Shouta took a second to process the "nightmare".

"But anyway, I woke up to your text and it made me feel better," Hizashi mumbled, patting his friend on the shoulder. "Thanks for letting me stay over. Much appreciated."

Shouta was left gaping in the dark, baffled and mildly confused at the situation.

"G'night, Shouta," Hizashi yawned, nuzzling against his pillow. A few moments later, Shouta could feel his body completely relax against his back, signaling that his friend really had fallen asleep.

Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, a smirk finding its way across his lips. His best friend truly was the worst liar in the world.

Carefully maneuvering his body to face Hizashi's back, Shouta rested his forehead against his friend's shoulder. The smell of fresh detergent was evident as he situated himself against Hizashi's sleeping form. The warmth radiating from the extra body in his bed made the room feel lighter, the shadows unmoving, and the quiet lull not as menacing.

Shouta closed his eyes. He gently grasped a handful of Hizashi's oversized T-shirt, his other hand still holding his phone to his chest.

"Stupid," Shouta muttered to no one in particular.

He fell asleep soon after, the warmth of Hizashi's back keeping him company.


End file.
